The application of decorating material to the top and sides of an iced cake is an art and the artist or cake decorator generally uses a device known as a pastry bag in a manner somewhat analogous to the manner a painter uses a brush. The material employed is in the nature of a confection that is sufficiently viscous as to hold its shape after being dispensed from the bag.
Recipes for making suitable decorating material are well known in the art and the material may be pre dyed or colored by food dyes. Ordinarily, separate pastry bags are used for each color being used Typically, a decorator tip is attached to an opening in the small collapsible pastry bag filled with icing. An operator squeezes the bag to force icing from the bag through the decorator tip as the operator manipulates the tip about a surface to artistically decorate the surface with the icing.
Various dispensers for cake icing are well-known, and usually comprise either a muslin bag having a base opening, or a syringe-type mechanical device. Muslin bag dispensers are relatively difficult to use, and are only practical for relatively large and skilled operations such as occur in bakeries and restaurants. Syringe-type dispensers are simple, but often fail to produce satisfactory results as the device tends to be unsteady in the user's hand, and it is also difficult to produce a steady flow of icing.
Dispensing guns for mastics and sealants are also well known, and these usually comprise a frame having a handle and a trigger which press together to operate a piston which extrudes the material from the nozzle of a cartridge, the piston being advanced in steps by a one-way drive which includes a releasable blocking plate. This arrangement has not proved suitable for “artistic” operations such as cake icing, as the remote nozzle tends to wander and the flow of material is not only difficult to control but also tends to be non-uniform and to continue after release of the trigger.
Other methods of dispensing cake icing comprise putting icing into collapsible paper cones that may be squeezed by the operator to dispense the icing through the tip of the cone. This method and apparatus requires a great deal of fatiguing effort on the part of the operator to squeeze the cone, as well as to move the tip of the cone about the cake to produce the desired icing decorations. Furthermore, the cone structure may, on occasion, rupture and therefore render the device useless. Because of the deficiencies in this particular method and apparatus, other types of dispensers have been employed to dispense cake icing.
In one example, a motorized apparatus for dispensing cake icing can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,421,251 issued Dec. 20, 1983. This device utilizes an electric motor to squeeze a collapsible icing bag, thereby to dispense icing contained within the bag onto a cake.
Still another device of interest is a hand operated plunger dispenser of icing for cakes that is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,966,537 issued Oct. 30, 1990. This device dispenses icing through a cylinder and a plunger arrangement which is operated by a manual hand lever. The icing is dispensed through a nozzle which is clamped by a tapped ferrule.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,361,946 issued Nov. 8, 1994 discloses a pneumatic air gun similar to a calking gun for discharging icing onto a cake. In this device a nozzle is coupled to the nozzle mount by the use of a tubular fastener which may be threadably engaged to the reads on the nozzle mount.
An icing device using a collapsible substantially spherical bulb shaped container made of low density polyethylene which holds the icing is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,758,802 issued Jun. 2, 1998. The bulb body has a dome shaped snap on adaptor collar of greater rigidity than the bulb container cap. The adaptor collar is constructed to receive a screw on nozzle applicator tip
U.S. Pat. No. 6,799,611 issued Oct. 5, 2004 is directed toward an automatic icing dispenser which feeds icing into a bag having a nozzle with a butterfly valve.
Another ergonomic icing applicator device by the inventor of the present application is shown in United States Design Pat. No. 496,216 issued Sep. 21, 2004.
The aforementioned apparatuses and methods allow a user to dispense icing onto a cake but they do not provide for both the rapid changing of icing styles or colors as well as the accurate and precise dispensing of cake icing. Some of the above mentioned devices must be flushed out and thoroughly cleaned before a different style or different color of icing may be dispensed. Other devices utilized for icing cakes create strain upon an operators wrist and are difficult to control which results in an icing dispenser that precludes accurate and artistic placement of icing on a cake. Furthermore, some of the devices utilized for icing cakes produce a stream of material that is both nonuniform in size and that continues to flow briefly after the release of the trigger mechanism.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there exists a continuing need for a new viscous material dispenser which utilizes interchangeable icing cartridges for rapid and easy changing of icing styles. There is also a need to reduce the stress placed upon an operator's arm, and a dispenser system that will dispense cake icing in a controllable and artistic manner. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills these needs.